Anger at Charities

[daedalus_bloom]

We must all be aware of the 'Chugger', the charity mugger who accosts us on the high street, who tries to be witty and amusing and only wants a few seconds of our time. Recently though I've become more aware of what I'm going to call a 'Churglar' or charity burglar, someone who comes to your house and asks for money (incidentally, I hereby stake my

Comments

[shotpurple]

Hmmmm. I think I agree on principle. However, should my ex-chugger flatmate or her scary South-African rabidly enthusiastic full-time chugger mate find out that I wrote that, I may be dead. Arghhhh!

One thing in their favour - they sure know how to party. We get car loads of them stopping off at the house, they warm themselves up, open bottles of red wine and whiskey, and always manage to procure some dope, despite having only been in the neighbourhood for about 5 minutes. Better than me in four years...

And they look down on my housemate's ususally-more-ethical-than-thou friend because he buys Coca Cola. It's worth having them exist just for that.

[daedalus_bloom]

I don't think that I'd object to the people themselves when they're not trying to make me give away money that I don't have. I just wish that they'd believe me when I say that I can't give them anything and I'd like to carry on doing what I was doing. I'm a Marxist who believes in a better distribution of money and I'm intelligent enough to figure out where I want my extra money, should it ever exist, to go.

How do all of your visiting chuggers manage to find the money to buy wine and whiskey when people are dying in Africa anyway? Anyway, the next time that you're house is invaded by these people, please tell them to concentrate on the rich, stupid people and not the poor, intelligent people who are thrown into pangs of wrenching guilt at being reminded that there's nothing more that they can do. Especially the ones who have an expensive vodka habit to uphold.

I'm not really as angry as this may make me sound, honestly...

[grumpy_thomas]

I got chugged once. I was drunk at the time, and I have no idea how to cancel direct debits so I'm a bit stuck.

[fatsothewombat]

Go into your bank. Say "I'd like to cancel one of my Direct Debits, please", and give details of said DD.

It is as easy as that.

[daedalus_bloom]

Pay attention to this man's words Thomas. He made a baby once, and parenthood leads to knowing about these things. This technique is better than mine, which involved running out of money, paying lots of fines until the bank got bored and cancelled my direct debits for me. That is the method that someone who was afraid to leave his bed, never mind his bedsit, would use. People who have made babies understand responsibility.

[grumpy_thomas]

That would be my strategy, but I have an overdraft facility, so if I let my money all go away then the direct debit would start putting me in debt. And since I'm not a student now they probably charge interest on it. I'm not really in a mood to try it, I owe the bloody loan people six grand and I've lost all the paperwork, if somehow I get a job that pays me more than whatever it is then I'm breaking the law in a way that leaves paper trails. It would be like sending receipts for drugs to Mr. Inlandi Revendi.

About this direct debit thing, can I just say 'cancel all direct debits' I only have one, but I don't know the details.

If it were up to me I'd bring back a barter based economy. Give me wine and I'll cook you dinner, that'd be a good one.

[fatsothewombat]

Well, I never sign up for anything in the street, at the door, or over the phone. Frankly, if I'm signing anything I want time to read it before I sign.

The annoying ones in town are the ones who try to engage you in conversation about something else before getting to the subject. And the ones who literally jump in front of you.

Really, they are a menace and need to be eradicated.

[daedalus_bloom]

The problem is that there is a breed of chugger, the attractive, borderline hippy type, who you think that maybe you could get on with in real life, and maybe something more could develop and then the world would be perfect, so you do stop to talk to them for a while. But after a while you remember that they're just interested in your money and they'd probably be a bit too 'ethical' without really understanding how the big bad world works and that you've already got a perfectly good girlfriend anyway, so you tell them that you have no money anyway and carry on to Tesco to buy vodka, then take the long route home so as not to have to pass them again. At least that may be the way these things work. I don't know.

[grumpy_thomas]

Oh sweet baby jesus in a bath of champagne, how I loathe having to go the long way round. I just want to shout at them and say 'can't you see I haven't got a job and need to maintain my drink habit? You should be collecting for me!' And if they are the evil type who seem all nice and attractive and women adding 'you can save me, probably, I can't be hard to save. Give it a go. You'll regret it but what's life without mistakes?'